Sunflower — Restaurant in Crested Butte

"Wow!"

Finding a culinary experience like this gem here isn't a something you come across often. This was truly an experience I will remember & talk about for a very long time!

We stumbled in rather late in the evening. It was more of a serendipitous find. All of the other restaurants we had passed were uninteresting and the menus very unoriginal. While there is a great pizza spot and few other tasty eateries in Crested Butte, I was "desperately" longing for a spectacular meal... Something unique and delicious.

[I've been in Colorado for two months now and even after a little exploring from Boulder to Aspen, fine dining to small cafe... It was all mostly filled with forgettable experiences. To be fair... I am here for work and not enough time allotted to culinary discovery.]

So... Back to where we were. It was late, I imagine the kitchen would be closing up rather soon. There were just a few small tables left in the restaurant. We were kindly greeted by the entire staff and welcomed with what felt like excitement from an old friend. The manager gave us a brief introduction to what Sunflower does with local business, farmers and the community. The food is local, it is fresh, responsibly sourced... All great things! How will it taste?

We shared savory, beautiful seasoned Lamb Bao Buns, a Caprese that felt like it was made on the farm, a Hawaiian wild caught fish with creative culinary pops like fermented black beans, fruit and herbs. Of course with at least another glass of wine left in the bottle... We had to have dessert! Two of them! A flourless chocolate tart, rich, creamy delicious... And my favorite, a bread pudding that was golden and crispy on the edges, but soft, warm and creamy in the middle!

What a wonderful wine list as well! One of the best I've seen in the area!

The unmatched freshness of the ingredients, the masterful command of flavors and the absolute comfort provided by the most hospitable team in Crested Butte... all made for the best dining experience I have had in Colorado!

So many 'thanks' to the chef and kitchen team for preparing a wonderful meal so late in the evening AND taking the time to introduce yourself and each plate. So much appreciate to the management and front of house for making us feel welcomed and loved.

Can't wait to go back! You are an AWESOME team and it shows you love...

This is the restaurant you've been looking for. Search no further. The dinner dining experience here is off the charts incredible. Your soul needs this place. I've dined at restaurants around the world, and Sunflower now occupies my top spot. Some things you should know: the lunch restaurant is different from the dinner experience. At lunch, it's a sandwich spot. Dinner is an experience conducted by different owners and different chefs. Lunch is good. Dinner is absolutely you'll-remember-this-for-the-rest-of-your-life-and-yearn-for-the-food-for decades afterward amazing. It's exquisite, locally-sourced fresh ingredients served in clean, simple, understated, yet fabulous combinations. I can tell you what we had, but chances are the menu will be different as it's constantly changing. Still, the lamb with chillis, capers, a risotto cake, and argula was the best lamb I've ever had (melt in your mouth spicy, perfectly balanced with lush savory flavors). The Alamosa bass with capers and a turnip sauce (yes --fresh pureed turnips) was perfectly cooked and exquisitely balanced. The salads (both kale salads and mixed greens) with figs, golden raisins, and fresh shaved radishes were the best salads I've ever eaten. Real baby carrots. Snap peas in yogurt with dates. And a strawberry desert that I'll think about for years to come. Everything about this place—from the decor, to the service, to the hand-made teak tables created from a friend of the owner's grandmother's house, to the locally sourced organic hard cider and the exquisite food—is finely crafted and supremely aligned. This the restaurant you've been searching for. This is the dining experience your soul craves. Go early, eat slow, enjoy the perfect bite. And the best part is, it's not in the least bit pompous or pricey. This is the real deal, serving up food you can believe in, and it kicks the fancy pants off most four star restaurants. Go before folks realize how incredibly good it is (in fact, I don't even want to write this review, lest the place gets overrun, but I feel I owe it to them for an amazing experience). Long...

Hey Sunflower! Maybe you guys should go to some places that serve $150 a head tasting menus and learn how to do it properly? The food was amazing but the service was terrible. I should’ve left when I heard a patron complaining at the table next to us about timing and portions and the waiter explained they had just switched to this style of service to save on food costs and be able to regulate their stations better. That’s the explanation for why you switched to a set price menu. Yikes.

The server was what I would expect from a laid back mountain town restaurant, but one that serves $18 hamburgers, not $150 a head tasting menus. Forgetting $18 glasses of wine, having to ask for water service multiple times. She was also completely out of touch with that level of service and was quite rude on a few occasions. She couldn’t really explain what was happening or what to expect, just that we’d be fed well. Ok fine, but provide some structure. If a table of five is expected to pay north of $900 they need to know what you’re serving them to some degree. Some idea of how the meal will go and what will be served when. Most places would explain we’ll start with this soup, move on to salads, then these first course dishes and here are a handful of entrees to choose from and so on and so forth.

It’s also obvious they just switched to this style of service. Food was great but not at all served in a way that works for 5 people to share. One dish was a little strudel, passed around the table by us to each have a forkful. You would’ve served the same portion to two people, why not adapt the dish to be easily split between groups of larger sizes?

Fantastic food ruined by an unclear concept and a level of service that didn’t match...